WWYDW: The Coaching Carousel

The hot topic around town this week is coaching, and who the Canucks will look at to replace the recently dismissed Willie Desjardins. We’ve already run a few profiles on some of the candidates here at CA, and there will be more to come this week. Travis Green is considered the front-runner, but the Canucks have been attached to other names as well, including Dave Lowry, Darryl Sutter, and Ralph Krueger, among others.

So, that brings us to this week’s question. Who would you like to see the Canucks hire as their new head coach?

Last week I asked: With the Canucks out of the picture, who will you be cheering for in the playoffs?

backup bob:

Most exciting series I think will be Sharks vs Oilers. All the experts are picking Edmonton, I pick San Jose and not just because we get their 1st round pick if they go all the way. Sharks have been there many times, and here they are again. I know Oilers are the flavor of the day, but I think experience will prevail. Sharks in six.

YoYo:

Cheering for Ovi to finally get his cup, and i think a Oilers/Capitals final would be amazing to watch, so thats what i am cheering for.

Having said that, Canucks need as many high picks as they can get, and so I’ll cheer SJS all the way to a cup if i have to.

wojohowitz:

Hard to cheer for anybody not Canuck but looking forward to

(1) Anaheim and Calgary. Since the Fowler injury this series will be a war.

(2) San Jose. A year older and a year slower. No pressure on Edmonton. It`s all fun, fun, fun.

(3) Burrows and Marchand.

tyhee:

Emotionally I really don’t care a hoot about how teams do this season in the playoffs so given that, the only think to hope for is to upgrade a late 4th round pick to the last pick in the 1st round. So, with some reluctance … Go Sharks.

14 Comments |

If I were hiring a coach I’d go for a second time guy, like Kevin Dineen or Paul MacLean. Ralph Kreuger would be ideal in some sort of coach/AGM capacity, too, if he’s interested in leaving the EPL. This is not to say Travis Green is a poor candidate. Just that following an inexperienced HC like Desjardins with another one has never seemed likely to me.

Coach? Easy: ABC ( anybody but Crawford ). No way Kreuger is coming unless SFC gets ‘blitzed’ – I’d give the reins to Green, like how he’s kept mediocrity’s nostrils above the water line more often than not.

Marc Crawford – not just because I watched the W. Coast Express go through their heyday, but also because this team needs to be built from the ground up. Developing players is different in the NHL than it is in the CHL and the AHL: a coach like Desjardins or Green can use ice time to motivate because every team has a max number of vets they may dress for each game. Every team has to manage that balance between development and vets, so you can always manage when the younger lines get out, and make them work to get powerplay time and all the rest.
In the NHL, you don’t have those constraints. On top of that, NHL players have much longer careers: you don’t have to worry about lining up Jarrod McCann against Joe Thornton in the OHL. In the NHL, that struggle is real.
If the Canucks are serious about wanting to get skilled players, Crawford’s up-tempo style is a great way to develop them offensively, and the fact that he doesn’t mind yelling means he doesn’t have to bench a player to get the message across.
Crow for two reasons, then: first, because he’s a good coach for an offensive team, and second because you have to build that kind of team with him – it would show the Canucks mean business about trying to draft and develop the next gen Bure/Naslund/Sedin.

I don’t think that GM Murray actually pulls thee trigger–or that Eichel seriously considers holding out–but offering the Sabres a way out of this mess by allowing us to talk with Bylsma about the coaching situation here would be a win-win-win-win situation. We’d get easily the best coach on the market, and everyone else gets a get out of jail free card from Eichel’s semi-ultimatum.

As you no doubt know by now, both Murray & Bylsma are gone in Buffalo, and Eichel remains. It’s going to be tough on the kid, now; no matter who they bring in to run the team, Eichel’s gonna wear the success or failures of the Sabres for the next few seasons.

Todd Reirdon, the associate coach for the Washington Capitals. He is responsible for Washington’s top-ranked power play and for developing their defencemen. It would be great for him to develop two PP units based around the young guys and then the Sedins. It would also be a boon for him to develop a Top 4 D-corp around Stecher, Tryamkin, Juolevi, Hutton.

Crawford all the way.
We desperately need an entertaining brand of hockey in the Vancouver Market which we’ve been sorely missing for many many years.
What strikes me funny is that everyone talks about how Crawford didn’t have goaltending, but people don’t remember that Crawford didn’t have anything when he first coached. He made the speed, he made the West Coast express, he even made hockey fun to watch again after the Dismal Keanan years…..
I read the comments here all the time and it’s funny to me how not one person has made reference to Markus Granlund being the next Naslund. Remember, Naslund wasn’t projected to be any more than a fourth line Winger and to me, the similarities are astounding.
The Canucks need a coach who can get the best out of the youth and create them to be the next future Superstars and selling tickets and putting fans in the seats.
For me, Crawford all the way!
Go Nucks Go!!!!
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The Canucks are going to be bad for the next couple of years. So get a coach that can teach while still playing an entertaining brand of hockey. Willie seemed to be coaching overly defensively in order to keep games close for a possible third period come back. It meant the first two periods were very boring to watch. If the Canucks are going to suck, at least let us watch them lose while trying to score.